Issue Position: Keeping Our Children Safe
Issue Position
Issue Position: Keeping Our Children Safe
Two years ago, thanks in part to the persistence of Linda Walker, mother of Dru Sjodin, Congress passed and the president signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. This landmark legislation improves the protections for children from high-risk sexual predators.
Now we need to build upon this legislation by adding protections for our children as they use the Internet.
At the beginning of this Congress, I joined Senator Charles Schumer and a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both the House and Senate in introducing important legislation aimed at protecting our children from convicted sex offenders online. Just as we tell our kids not to talk to strangers when we send them off to school, the digital age now requires us to give our children the same warning when they log on to the Internet.
KIDS Act of 2007 passes the House
On November 14, 2007, legislation I introduced to help protect children from sex offenders on the Internet unanimously passed the House of Representatives.
This legislation, entitled the Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2007 or the KIDS Act of 2007, increases the sentence for lying about your age on the Internet with the intent to engage in criminal sexual conduct with a minor. It addition, it authorized $5 million each year to hire more probation officers to monitor sex offenders' Internet activity and criminalizes the financial facilitation of child pornography transactions.
The original KIDS Act of 2007, as the late Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-OH) and I first introduced it, would have required convicted sex offenders to register their online identifiers, such as their email and IM addresses, with the National Sex Offender Registry. While these online identifiers would not be released to the general public, this information would be made available to social networking sites.
By requiring convicted sex offenders to register their email addresses and other online identifiers, this legislation would help social networking sites prevent convicted sex offenders from registering for their services. It would also identify those convicted sex offenders who may currently be on these sites. Moreover, this legislation would provide criminal penalties of up to 10 years for those convicted sex offenders who try to get around these protections by lying about their online identifiers.
I am committed to making it more difficult for convicted sex offenders to use social networking sites, and I believe the provisions in the original KIDS Act of 2007 are a fair and reasonable response to further secure our children's online safety.
Just as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act made us better equipped to protect our children from sex offenders in the communities in which we live and work, the KIDS Act will help us protect our children in online, virtual communities.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act
On July 27, 2006, the President signed into law the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act - a major step forward in protecting our children from sexual predators. This legislation was a long time coming and I am very proud of the tools this legislation gives to families.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, of which I was an original co-sponsor, increases awareness of sex offenders in our communities, strengthens sex registry requirements and enforcement, and increases penalties for sex offenders and child predators.
One of the most important tools in this law is the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website. Through this website, information on convicted sex offenders from all states can be searched. Keeping our children safe is always a top priority and this website will enable parents and communities to know if there is a dangerous predator living around the corner or in the next town over. Previously, only law enforcement was able to access the national sex offender database.
Other key provisions of this act include:
Expansion of public notification requirements for sex offender registration to include law enforcement agencies, employment background check agencies, social service agencies, and volunteer organization where sex offenders live, work, or go to school in the community.
Expansion of required registration data of offenders. Under this provision, sex offenders must register where they live, work,
Pomeroy watches President Bush sign the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. (L-R) Sen. Dorgan, John Walsh, Sen. Specter and Rep. Sensenbrenner look on.
Pomeroy watches President Bush sign the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. (L-R) Sen. Dorgan, John Walsh, Sen. Specter and Rep. Sensenbrenner look on.
and attend school.
Increase in frequency of offender data verification: This requires sex offenders to provide verification, in-person, every 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months depending on the severity of the offender's crime.
Increase in maximum permitted sentence for knowingly failing to register to 10 years. Currently, the maximum penalty for failing to register is one year.
Increase in criminal penalties against convicted child sexual predators in federal cases.
o 30 years mandatory minimum for engaging in a sexual act with a child under 12 years old.
o 30 years to life or death for perpetrators who commit a sexual-abuse offense against a child that results in death.
This strong response to sexual predators is a result of the courage and commitment of the families of victims to protect others from the tragedies that happened to them. I especially appreciate the efforts of Linda Walker, mother of Dru Sjodin, and John Walsh, father of Adam Walsh and host of America's Most Wanted, for their work on this bill.
You can access the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website at www.nsopr.gov
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